Worthwhile splurges for the master bathroom
If you want a master bathroom that feels luxurious and relaxing, says design-
and-build contractor Mark Mackmiller, of Eden Prairie, Minn., consider these
three features: 1) Dual sinks allow you and your spouse to get ready for work
or a night out on the town at the same time–with your own work and storage
spaces. This adds $500 to $2,500 to the job, depending on whether you need
to steal space from adjacent closets or rooms by reconfiguring walls. 2)
Installing a separate walk-in shower and soaking tub make both showering
and bathing more efficient and enjoyable than the standard combo tub-and-
shower setup. If you have the space, or can steal it, this might add $2,000 to
$8,000 to your project cost. 3) Adding a toilet room creates privacy where it’s
needed while allowing the overall bathroom to be a truly shared space. Figure
$1,000 to $5,000 in added cost, again depending on whether you need to grab
the space from an adjacent room.
Avoid reinventing the layout
You can make up some of those costs by keeping as many of your new
plumbing fixtures (toilet, sink, tub) as possible in the same locations as the old
ones. In a second-floor bathroom, each fixture you put back where its
predecessor stood could save you $200 to $500 because you won’t need to
run new supply and drain pipes. On the first floor, the savings aren’t
significant, as long as you have a crawlspace or basement access underneath;
however if your house is on slab foundation (a solid concrete pad), moving
plumbing locations is likely at least as costly as moving it on a second story.
Go for porcelain, not stone
You’ll likely fall in love with all sorts of natural stone tile options for your
floors and shower-enclosure walls. But you can save about $500 to $1,500 for
the average bathroom (in material and labor costs) by going with porcelain
tile. Opt for a stone-look porcelain tile and you’ll get nearly as much variety of
natural color and texture as real stone provides, but a much easier bathroom
to maintain: Porcelain tile is almost indestructible. Ask for “urethane” grout—